Week Six: Degrees of separation

I’m enjoying a more contemplative day today as the snow gently falls on the pines and the pastures. Having ignored the urgings of the weather service to heed instructions for French Toast Alert Level Orange, I’ve done my driving for the day without adding to my stores of milk, bread, or eggs. Quiet music plays from the TV’s music channel. Knitting is being accomplished; reading, contemplated.

Not taken from my house, but it might as well be.

As I was driving back from “town” this morning I was thinking about how people keep saying that the internet has allowed people to opt out of personal interactions, that we are not learning how to effectively interact with people face to face. I wonder about that. If you know me, you probably know I spend a lot of time on Facebook. I check in several times a day, sometimes for hours at a time. I post, comment, share, like, friend, and play a popular game using letter tiles.

Through Facebook I have been able to connect with interesting people, stay in touch with relatives, and reconnect with more distant souls. My Facebook friends range from my first friend (born two days before me to the family two houses down the street) to people on the other side of the planet, sometimes cyberfriends of cyberfriends. I can peek over the shoulders of my twin third-cousins as they work their way through medical school. I can look at the first photos of the first grandchild born to someone in my high school graduating class. I can witness the silly exchanges between two best friends, or between partners. I can see a list of the songs my sister-in-law is listening to on Internet radio, and with a click of the mouse I can hear them, too. These are the kinds of events I wouldn’t ordinarily witness. They are a view into ordinary life that a class reunion, a family reunion, or even a phone call or a letter doesn’t have a way to truly include.

Through Facebook I’ve been allowed to participate in more joy, anxiety, humor, pain, happiness, and sorrow than I thought my heart would have room for. Babies are born and celebrated, and babies die and are grieved. Kids say the darnedest things. Students study, party, win, lose, and goof around. Pets get sick. Friends make plans, issue invitations, meet up, and share the photos afterwards. Grandparents fall down. People have surgery. Prayers, positive thoughts, and (((hugs))) fly back and forth like electromagnetic waves. Funny jokes and silly pictures are circulated. People are poked. A classmate waits in vigil for her comatose sister to open her eyes and rejoin the world, and her classmates wait invisibly with her.

This is more connection, not less. These are the kinds of shared events that used to only happen within a family. Because of Facebook, our families have grown if we have allowed them to. And not only have I discovered things about my friends and my family — I’ve discovered more about myself. I could compare my accomplishments with those of others and be depressed, yes; I can also encounter unsolicited viewpoints that make me stop, think, reconsider, reaffirm, adapt, change, and grow.

I’m not indulging in these musings just to distract you from the paucity of my knitterly and academic accomplishments in the last week. While the variable weather and the resultant slick (and sometimes invisible) roadways have kept me from getting to campus to work on my math, I am 29 rows (1,218 stitches) away from finishing the dropped-stitch scarf. I have a shawl project all set to go that a real-life, in-person kind of friend is making at the same time. I’ve also initiated a Valentine’s Day cyberspace knit-along event involving a whole batch of friends I’ve never met in person. And I’m making bits of progress on my longer-term knitting projects as well.

This was not a stated goal, but I’ve gotten all caught up with both “Downton Abbey” and “Castle,” and I’m starting on “Top Chef.” Ten more episodes to go on that one. If I have a marathon I might be able to finish in time for the live finale, but I’m not sure. I also have a stack of interesting books I’m trying to make time for. I miss reading.

From the bucket to the sprout

I swear, I had the beginnings of a terrific blog post all drafted and ready. All I had to do was add some images of album covers and it was all set.

Last night I was supposed to be seeing Barry Manilow in concert at the Chicago Theatre, performing from his 2011 concept album 15 Minutes. Barry’s been a bucket-list item for me since I imprinted on him at the age of 12, he wasn’t getting any younger, and I wasn’t getting any closer to Las Vegas. So I was excited to hear my husband had gotten us tickets to his sold-out Friday night show, even though it made for a super-hectic Friday of work, classes, an eye exam, picking up the kids from school, and rushing them to their grandparents’ house before switching cars and driving (him) / riding (me) to downtown Chicago. Also on the agenda was brunch at Rick Bayless’s restaurant Xoco the next morning. We’re big Top Chef fans and although he’s eaten at two other Top Chef restaurants (run by Harold Dieterle, winner of Season 1, and Wylie Defresne, Top Chef Master), this would be my first Top Chef meal.

But at about noon on Friday, he texted me with the news that Barry was still not recovered from recent hip surgery, and the show was cancelled. And then another text: we couldn’t get out of the hotel reservation, so we were going to take the trip anyway and have dinner at a Top Chef restaurant.

The hotel, Sax, was literally next door to the House of Blues. Which we didn’t enter, have a drink at, or hear anyone play at. Next slide, please!

The unvisited House of Blues

With the Jetta safely valet-parked somewhere in Chicago, and trying not to think of Cameron’s dad’s Ferrari, we took a cab a little ways north to Sprout, which is run by Season Three Top Cheffer Dale Levitski. Now, I was being a happy little tourist taking pictures outside, but I wasn’t about to take any pictures of the restaurant interior, the menus, or the food — although I was tempted to do so at certain points in the meal.

I was going to try to link you to the menus at the Sprout website, but they are not the same menus we saw last night. I have a feeling they change very frequently. Instead, you’ll have to trust my descriptions as I, in turn, will have to trust my memory. (Buckle up.)

Before dinner I had a cocktail that was basically a lime fizz with ginger. It was served with a tiny wedge of lime on the glass and had a very dry finish.

For dinner you could order a la carte from the menu or choose, as we did, the prix fixe. We chose an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert from the menu and would also receive a soup course and a cheese course along the way.

The appetizer I chose was a curried shrimp, which was cooked to perfection on a square of puff pastry and accompanied with a mildly sweet sauce the color of butternut squash, sprinkled with pistachios, and next to a small salad of baby turnip greens, radishes, and dark cherries. It was amazing, and our server indicated that things would only get better from there.

Oh, yes — I was also having a lovely glass of wine with dinner. I usually prefer a white wine on the sweet side, but having picked spicy shrimp to start with and a game meat as the center of my meal, I ended up with a full-bodied red wine that would go pretty well with everything. I do not by any means have an expert palate (though I was, um, coached in the drinking arts by a pair of sophisticated drinkers who shall remain un-named), so when the server described Wine One as “all right” and Wine Two as something that would “provide better structure for my meal,” I decided to trust his authority and didn’t regret it.

Next came the soup course, a tiny taste of a butternut-and-something soup garnished with baby greens and served in a small white cylinder of a “bowl.” The total volume of soup, velvety on the tongue, couldn’t have been two tablespoons, which was good because it was terribly rich, and having any more would have ruined my appetite for the….

Venison, crusted with black pepper, with rustic mashed potatoes and a dark-cherry-and-something demiglaze. I have never had venison before, but tonight seemed the night to try it. The slices appeared rare in the middle, but were actually cooked perfectly and just melted in my mouth. And the wine was perfect with it, strong enough to handle the black pepper (which I barely noticed) yet add some sweetness.

It was around this time that Chef Dale (actually, Executive Chef Dale) came out of the kitchen to talk with the Annoying Couple at the table next to ours. They had been a little too loud all evening, casually dismissive of almost everything on their plates, and basically a pair of local nitwits for whom requesting an audience with the chef was standard operating procedure. Dale stood between our tables and chatted amiably with them, so close to me that I could have goosed him. (I didn’t.) I guess part of a chef’s image is the ability to interact politely with anybody who wants to interact with you, and Dale does that very well. When he was done with them, Brendan caught his eye, and Dale asked about our meal, so we chatted him up for a couple of minutes, asking a bit about behind-the-scenes Top Chef stuff (judges’ table can last up to FOUR HOURS) and trying to spend more time than that in praising his food to high heaven.

Dale retreated to the kitchen, and our cheese course came out. I was expecting a plate with cheese on it, but what we got was a “grilled cheese sandwich” that was more like a wedge of a quesadilla, with aged Wisconsin white cheddar and thin slices of roasted apple inside. This is the only item I ordered that is pictured on the Sprout website; go to the Gallery and click once on “back” to see it.

Then it was time for dessert, and I had picked “chocolate.” (Why would I not?) I remember a chocolate mousse with shaved chocolate, and some creme anglaise, and a very very rich dark-chocolate-and-something sauce beneath it all, but my stomach was filling and now my memory is fading. Everything was wonderful, and I don’t remember sharing a bit of it. I did make a bit of a mistake with this course by not finishing my wine before I started eating it — it was a clash. I remedied that as soon as I could (bottoms up!), and enjoyed the chocolate very much. We finished with a cup of coffee (sweetened with raw-sugar cubes and can’t-say-“lightened” with some thickness of cream) and cabbed it back to the hotel.

Gene Siskel Film Center

On Saturday morning we took a walk around the area before heading back to Milwaukee to get the kids. We went down State Street and passed the Chicago Theatre, which did NOT list Barry Manilow on the marquee. We saw the Gene Siskel Film center (miss you, Gene). We wandered around a bit, then saw something very familiar — a huge Picasso sculpture I’ve seen dozens of times in The Blues Brothers, and a signal that we were at Richard J. Daley Plaza and “on set” for the culminating scenes of The Blues Brothers. I was a very happy little tourist here, and scurried around to find just the right angles for my pictures. They’re also in a Facebook photo album titled “Blues Brothers Walking Tour.

Chicago Theatre

National Radio Hall of Fame

Does anybody know whose these fellows are, on the side of the Cook County Municipal Building? Boy, would I like to tag them on Facebook.

Mystery Man 1

Mystery Man 2

All in all, it was a fun trip even though I didn’t get to see Barry (yet). Chicago itself was my eye candy, from architecture to cuisine to walking through scenes from one of my favorite movies.

So. Resolution update? A little knitting, great work in my classes (I was even the first to turn in my Astronomy homework online), no getting rid of anything, and I don’t dare step on a scale after eating and drinking as I did. I didn’t even tell you about the espresso/Tia Maria/vodka cocktail I had this morning with a three-egg spinach and feta omelet, with perfect hash browns and wheat toast on the side. That omelet might feed me at every breakfast for a week!

Meeting expectations

I always knew I was my own worst enemy. No sooner do I vow to Get This Doctor Who Scarf Done No Matter What, I decide I just have to make matching hats for the mittens.

One hat down, another hat started, two hats to go.

But tonight, I swear, I will work on The Scarf. After tonight’s Top Chef and a round of playing the home game (eight key ingredients, two cooks, one dish each, no desserts). I mean, I only have 190 rows to go before I add the tassels.

So, of course, I started on some Secret Holiday Knitting too. That shouldn’t slow me down a bit, no sirreeeeee!

But other than that, the order should probably be Doctor Who Scarf first, Adipose, Tilting TARDISes Cowl/Scarf (did I mention that one in the last list? it’s lovely lace), Gigi’s Triangle Shawl, 198 Yards of Hell, and then whatever’s left. With, of course, Hats of Hilarity and Christmas Knitting tucked in between each of those projects.

Did I mention there is a birthday and a wedding coming up? And that I thought when school started I would be able to work on some quilts when I wasn’t studying for my Apple Hardware and OS Certification? Oh crap. I might find out I’m human after all.

Time/spacewise, I started reading the introduction of my scholarly edition of H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine, only to discover his primary influence for the work was a book called Flatland published by Edwin Abbott in 1884. Well lo and behold, I have already bought Flatland, so after finishing the Time Machine intro I will read Flatland first. This is all because I finished Cosmos a couple of days ago, yay me.

It’s all part of the plan. Hang on tight.

Four of Ten

After I stared at the red mittens for a few days, I finally got my act together and knitted their thumbs. After the sad experiences of my previous mitten-making stints, in which the second mitten invariably emerged from the needles as a 10 percent reduction of the first one, I wanted to be able to concentrate on what I was doing, keep careful track of my rows, and make sure the two mittens were as darn close to identical as I could make them.

So, I packed them off to Late Night Knitting at the Sow’s Ear last Friday and went forward. With the help of just a touch of Chocovine and some bites of panko chocolate. (Seriously, a dark chocolate bar with panko bread crumbs and sea salt. It’s hard to express just how yum this is.)

In the end, I was pleased with my efforts.

So, I went on to finish knitting Zoom, a swiffer cover made from dishcloth cotton. I haven’t seamed it up yet, but the Actual Knitting ended about 15 minutes before Late Night did. I was pleased with how that turned out, too.

The impetus for knitting Zoom is that last month the thin carpeting in our rented farmhouse was replaced with laminate flooring in the kitchen and dining room. And while I’m no longer obsessed with the thought of a rotten carpet, pad, and subfloor every time one of the kids spills a Capri Sun, I did quickly realize I was going to have to make something to help me keep it clean and dry. I’ve had a Swiffer broom for years, but I hated having to spend so much money on the little wipes. And they always dried out in their packages before I got to use them all. A reusable cotton cover made so much sense to me. Now, I almost have one. There are several patterns for this kind of thing; I selected Zoom because it had a little texture to it.

Anyway, then I pulled my 198 Yards of Heaven project out of the bag. It stared me in the face. It taunted me. You don’t have time to work on me properly, just enough time to start a row and thoroughly screw it up. What’s the matter, can’t you count? I put it back in the bag. There were more mittens to do.

Sort of. When I asked my daughter if she still wanted brown mittens, she said no. She had wanted brown woolen mittens with decorated backs that looked like either horseshoes, or initials made from yarn that looked like a cowboy’s rope. I don’t remember exactly. It sounded pretty complex to me, and I wasn’t looking forward to it. I was relieved to hear that she had changed her mind.

“What kind of mittens do you want, then?”
“Ones with fingers.”
Oh crap. “Gloves?”
“Yes! Gloves! In purple.”

Now, the closest I’ve come to knitting gloves would have been…. oh, let’s see. The red mittens in the picture in this post. Well, I did want to please, and it was time to stretch and challenge myself a little bit, so I looked through my pattern files.

What I ended up doing was combining the measurements I’d taken for Jack’s hands (Colleen is older but slight, and Jack is younger but robust, and most times they measure identically) for the Fittin’ Mittens pattern with the recipe given in a Winter 2003 article from Interweave Knits called “Progressive Gloves.” There will be plenty of new things for me to learn, including the way the thumb is allowed for (you knit several stitches with waste yarn to create a provisional cast on you’ll pick up later).

I picked a pretty variegated purple yarn from the stash (Rhapsody from Dark Horse Yarns, a Merino Wool from Turkey of all places, an orphan skein I adopted from the Sow’s Ear last year), cast on last night, and immediately modified the pattern so her gloves would have ribbed cuffs. That I already know how to do.

I’ll need to measure her hand this morning to determine how far to knit before I put in the thumb stitches, and I need to know where her “finger line” is, but so far it’s been good knitting. The yarn measures out at 205 yards for 100 grams, so it’s big fluffy Merino. So nice to knit with after the Bernat sock-weight nylon/acrylic blend I just wrestled into a pair of mittens.

In other news, UNWIND registrations are starting to roll in. By the time I log in the new ones there should be about 15 out of 200. It’s all more real every day. Please, if you’re planning to come, do help me out by registering as early as you can so we’ll know better how much we’re planning for.

And, oh. Top Chef. See ya, Tim!

Not enough hours in the day

I feel like I have to sprint to get this post in tonight, so I’ll have at least two posts for May. (I’m still feeling guilty about having no posts in April.) Last year at this time I was probably posting 2-3 times a week. Nowadays — well, I guess I’m doing more Mom work.

Yes, there’s Ravelry, too. I recently passed 5000 posts there. That’s nothing compared to some people. (They know who they are.) But it is a lot compared to many. I have started two groups, and am a moderator on one other group, and if I don’t check in at least a few times a day the backlog starts to build up.

Anyway. Everyone here is reasonably healthy (last night’s needless ER trip with Jack notwithstanding) and the knitting is slowly proceeding.

I was getting a little bit frustrated with the knitting a few days ago, then I realized that I simply am dealing with a bunch of larger projects all jostling for my time. In addition, three of them are completely in garter stitch, which frankly isn’t very compelling to look forward to. They’ll be immensely rewarding after they’re done.

Two of the other projects are stalled sock projects. One of them (Retro Rib) is boring, and the other (Noro) is frustrating. Yes, there’s a difference!

So I’ve been spending most of my time with turning two skeins of vintage yarn into a lacy summer scarf. I may be the only person on the planet making a scarf out of DuPont Radiance acrylic. Hooray for individualism!

No spinning yet — I got the new parts for my wheel but I still need to sand, stain, and put the hooks on the new multi-speed flyer. I don’t know when that’s going to happen since I’m not in a rush about it. Right now the knitting is more important.

The Yarn-a-Latte group is well started and already has some regulars in place (shout out to Bonnie AKA Jeeplady). It’s really nice to have a Tuesday night knit that’s close by, and it’s made the last couple of Sowless Fridays easier to bear.

Knitwise, what have I finished? Well, I got a cell phone for Mother’s Day and promptly abandoned every other project to make two cell phone cozies. Out of alpaca and a friend’s handspun, thankyouverymuch. It’s hard to beat an alpaca cell phone cozy for luxury! And they are Doctor Who-themed to boot. I’m trying to figure out a cozy design for each Doctor. Starting with Ten. But I have picked up some yarn to make one for Nine (I hope).

In the television-watching department, both Chuck and Castle got renewed. And there was much rejoicing! If you haven’t watched these shows there’s plenty of time to catch up. They are both worth it. And they both feature actors from Firefly — Adam Baldwin (Jayne) and Nathan Fillion (Captain Mal) respectively. Dollhouse, with Alan Tudyk (Wash), also got renewed — I haven’t seen it but will start catching up. Unfortunately, The Sarah Connor Chronicles with Summer Glau (River Tam) was cancelled after this season. But since a friend’s viewing of that show got me directly into Firefly, I am mourning the loss of it even though I didn’t watch.

What do we watch? I don’t think I watch a lot of television (again, compared to some), but chronologically it includes Ladies’ No. 1 Detective Agency, Chuck, Castle, Top Gear, My Boys, Better Off Ted, The Office, 30 Rock, Parks and Recreation, Saturday Night Live, and Doctor Who/Torchwood/Sarah Jane Adventures when I can get them. Top Chef and Next Food Network TV Star when they’re “in season.” Flight of the Conchords. Anything by Anthony Bourdain when I can catch it.

When I see it all written out like that, I realize it’s more TV than I have ever regularly watched. I don’t know why. Are shows getting better? I’m not sure about that, but they are getting quirkier. I’m also watching lots of Netflix stuff, so I don’t know how I have so much time for TV. I can tell you that ever since we got the DVR we’ve been snagging more shows that we liked, just because it was easier to do so.

Remember, just after the dinosaurs were wiped off the face of the earth, when we’d put in a tape to catch a show, and we’d watch it days later? Or, actually, never get around to watching it at all? Well, when you get a message on your DVR screen that says “83 percent full” you start watching your shows to free up the space. I mean, you just have to. Otherwise you can’t record any more stuff!

When I’m not watching all this television, I’m exercising and catching up on some podcasts. I’m years to months behind on all of them, but I’m plugging away.

Back to the knitting!

Fiberrific

I wasn’t planning to write a post tonight, but I’m overdue, and besides, everyone is asleep. I might as well strike while the kids are sleeping. Who knows when one of them will have a nightmare and come running down the stairs? (I never know; without my glasses I can’t read the bedside clock. My daughter swears I lift the covers for her without even waking up.)

After the Marquette scarf got done and the first sock of the pair got done, not much knitting has been taking place. I started plugging away again on the Season 16 Doctor Who Scarf, but I haven’t cast on for the second sock yet. I was going to do that tonight, but then this German wine kind of got in the way of doing a good job of it. (Then I was going to watch two episodes of Torchwood, then one episode of Torchwood, but then it took forever to get caught up on Ravelry, so here I am.)

I did, however, cast on for a new project. That’s not as terrible as it sounds. It’s really something I promised as a Christmas present, so actually it’s about time I cast on for it. It’s a simple scarf, but I considered several stitch patterns before I found something I liked. And once I did, I loved it. I think I may have finally found a scarf that knits itself. I’m using the Baby Cable Ribbing pattern from the first Barbara Walker book. It’s an easily memorized four-row pattern that you could knit in the dark if you had to. I started the scarf two days ago, haven’t put in much time on it really, and it’s fairly galloping along. I don’t think it hurts that the yarn is 100 percent Merino either.

So. I have the Scarf, the Second Sock, and the New Scarf all going right now. (As soon as I get the Second Sock going, that is.) There’s another pair of socks lined up one the Retro Rib pair are done, but I promise that as soon as one of the Scarves is done I will start working on a WIP.

And you can vote on which one it is! Shall it be:

Tyrone, the striped bottom-up sweater stuck at the raglan decreases? Since October 2007?

The Irish Hiking Scarf in cursèd yarn from Mystical Creations? Three skeins (at least) to go!

The Gullwing Lace stole in silk yarn I bought for myself last Mother’s Day?

Or, the Denim Sweater I started in November for NaKnitSweMo and didn’t even finish the crew neck? I might have enough yarn for the whole sweater, but I’m not sure.

Every vote counts. Each commenter can cast as many as ten votes — all for one project, or split them up however you like. Clearly, my own inclinations toward the next project cannot be trusted.

———

In other news, I have registered for a spinning retreat being taught by Judith MacKenzie McCuin. Naturally, I am preparing for this by spinning up fiber that I am dealing with by the seat of my pants. This works fine for the Wookie fiber, which I would love to spin up and ply so I can clear off all my bobbins, but a few nights ago I decided to card and spin up some huacaya alpaca fiber samples. I got the majority of it spun, but then something happened with the take-up and the twist was just not getting into the fiber to make it strong enough to be singles. After a half dozen tries at dragging it back through the orifice to try to draft more fiber on it, I decided to leave it alone and finish when I was calmer. So now, I just hope to finish the huacaya, and prep and spin the suri samples, and possibly do the rest of the current bag of Wookie-wool before it’s time to hoist Maggie into the van and head to Columbus (Wisc.) for the retreat.

Is anything else going on? Well, Leah went home on Top Chef. About time. I am really getting to enjoy Fabio’s screen time, and Stefan’s skills.

Doctor Who is done airing the 4th season for the American audience, and true to form, they absolutely sliced and diced the season finale so they could promote Ashes To Ashes. Which even the Brits didn’t like. So if you watched the finale last weekend and wondered what all the fuss was about, ask me and I’ll give you links to where you can see what aired in the UK.

But Torchwood is coming back on soon, so I’m trying to catching up by watching Season 2 on Netflix. Trying and not succeeding tonight. Maybe tomorrow….

Chilly

You may have heard this already, but my region is expecting extremely cold temperatures over the next couple of days. I know, I was trying not to start each new post with a weather report, but this is kind of special weather.

Pretend you’re on Match Game ’77 for a minute. (Those of you born after 1977 may skip to the end.)

Gene Rayburn: “It was so cold in Wisconsin the other day—”
Richard Dawson, Brett Somers, Charles Nelson Reilly, et al.: “How cold was it?”
Gene Rayburn: “It was so cold in Wisconsin the other day, that they cancelled Thursday classes by 5:30 on Wednesday afternoon.”

I know, it doesn’t have the same ring to it as “It was so cold that Beth froze her BLANK off,” but this is a pretty big deal for us. Tomorrow morning it’s supposed to be -20°F. Wind chills tonight and especially Thursday night may be in the -40° to -45°F range. So finding out the day before was amazing. Our school district was even listed individually, which probably only happened because not everything in Milwaukee County was closed on Thursday yet.

So. The kids are all home tomorrow, and we’re not planning to open the door except to let Daddy leave for a brief business trip to sunnier, warmer Texas. Personally, I plan to knit. A lot. I don’t know what they have in mind.

Knitwise, on Tuesday I finished a little baby blanket for one of Big Tom’s therapists. The poor woman was on bedrest awaiting induction tonight, only to be told she’s not ready and has to stay on bedrest until 39 weeks are done. Ugh ugh ugh, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. But let the record show I finished the knitting, washed and dried it, and wrapped it up and wrote a card. (Don’t tell her I can’t even find the cute baby-gift wrapping paper and adorable card I bought for her last Saturday.)

Me: “I’m sure I put it in a Secret Special place.”
James: “Why don’t you make a map of your Secret Special places?”
Now there’s a good idea. For now, I’m just glad I had almost-appropriate wrapping paper that could substitute.

Other than that, I’m working on the first of a pair of Retro Rib socks — but very, very slowly. I got in one repeat at the Webelos meeting last night, and one repeat this afternoon. I’m also working on another Doctor Who Scarf, but I think I’ve managed two rows on that all week. It’s so far under the radar there’s dirt on the plane’s undercarriage. I haven’t done anything on the Secret Project except buy more yarn for it. 

In other news, I just finished sending in all my edits to the new issue of Knitcircus, so that will be able to go to the printer very soon. I like helping out on the ‘zine and I am just so impressed with the designs of Elizabeth Morrison. You should see her finished items in person. They all have such personality to them, and some of the yarns just glow. My own stuff just looks like stuff.

Top Chef Bulletin: Ariane got sent home tonight. Hosea pretty much threw her under the bus by allowing her to butcher her butchering of a lamb without telling her he had much more experience or offering to help. She didn’t even know how to tie up a roast properly. For goodness’ sake, I could have done a better job at it by remembering stuff I’ve seen Jacques Pepin do on television. So it’s sort of fair, and sort of not. She wasn’t going to make it to the finals anyway. Next week: Restaurant Wars. Bwahahaha!

Hats and gifts and stuff

Connor Caps total: 1

But I have it on good authority that caps will start arriving soon, a few from France, some from Canada, and others from the States. The Connor Caps group on Ravelry now has members representing sixteen states and three other countries. WOW.

Connor himself has started chemo and radiation therapy, and after a rough start on the first day he was actually back at school on Wednesday, showing off his radiation mask for Show and Tell.

I nearly poked holes in my fingertips while making the beret, so I did shift to another project for the time being — an Everlasting Bagstopper from Amy Singer at Knitty. I can’t say enough about how cool this pattern is. It’s free, it’s fast, there’s almost no purling, it looks great, and did I mention there’s almost no purling? The only drawback right now is I’ll have to buy one more ball of Sugar & Cream yarn to finish it. Well boo freaking hoo, if that’s the worst thing happening right now. I’m sure I’ll be making whole batches of them.

 

In very slow progress

The NaKnitSweMo sweater is still sitting there where I left it, begging me to finish the crew neck. Obviously I won’t have a sweater by the end of the month. But I’m not beating myself up because there’s so much other stuff going on. The sweater thing was really a vanity project, and I’ll be happy whenever it’s done. Meanwhile, Christmas gets a day closer every day. I’m trying to panic quietly.

And I haven’t put the fringe on the Who Scarf, either. That must be done before Thanksgiving. Just have to start and keep going, I guess. (Shout out to Dale-Harriett, who is finishing the knitting and weaving portion of Scarfness, and sidling up to the fringe as well. But it’s a quiet shout out, since she’s working on NaWriNoMo and keeping pace. I’d link, but I don’t want to disturb her.)

The “diet” resolve is holding steady so far. I don’t know why things are different this time. Maybe I finally set a goal that was low enough — do everything I can to lose one pound a week. This morning I woke up and I was craving to hop on the Nordic Track and exercise. (Maybe there was a little bit of craving for listening to Cast On as well, but it doesn’t matter to me if it’s working.) I’ve been drinking less alcohol, less soda, more water, having fewer snacks, and eating better portions of better food. Weigh-ins are on Sunday nights and I am not checking in the interim. But I feel better already.

To wrap up, I have started and frogged the brown Merino giftknit scarf three or four times now. I need some pattern suggestions for something quick and warm and soft. I don’t want to repeat using these patterns for this person: One-Row Handspun Scarf, Mistake Rib Stitch, or Garter stitch. I would also be so slow at any kind of overall ribbing that I’m dubious about that, too. Any thoughts?

Thanks for your prayers for Connor and your hats for the schoolkids, if you’re making them. If you need the mailing address, just say so in the comments and I’ll email you back with it. And if you’re on Ravelry, do join the group!

P.S. Top Chef returns and it’s off to a soul-crushing start! Why oh why do they allow competitors who are still in culinary school? That’s just cruel.

Podcast me!

I now have a hand-me down iPod shuffle, thanks to Mr. Chocolatesheep. My music is all on CD in the car for listening while I drive, so I thought I would start listening to some knitting podcasts.

But I don’t know where to start! I have heard of a few…but don’t know what would be to my liking.

So, what’s your favorite podcast and why? Don’t put a link in your comment, as you may end up in the Spam Bucket and it’s been icky in there lately. Just give me the name of the podcast or who does it, and I’ll follow up with you if I need more information on how this all works.

Knitting update: doing the hand decreases on Mitten One right now. Did more of a Debbie Bliss demin square. Everything else is just sitting around.

Top Chef tonight! It’s Restaurant Wars everyone!

Contest time!

Hi folks….sorry for the lack of posts. The Internet connection is continuing to be crap, but now that we have DH has rearranged the living room, it seems to be better. (I know, WTF. It’s like the “magic” sticker on the big VAX servers in the Olden Days. Don’t touch it and everything will be fine.) Not knowing when I’d get dumped has kind of tarnished the relationship, yaknowwhatImean?

But anyway…..I just looked at my blog stats and saw the Comments total is at 987. You all know what that means, a goodie bag for the 1,000th comment! (Nothing for you, Mister Spam. Move along.)

I don’t know for sure what the prize will be. Odds are high that it could be a styrofoam head on which you could pose your latest knitted hat. Or, you could pick What’s Behind Door Number Two: a classic Chocolate Sheep care package from good ol’ Wisconsin. This will probably involve both yarn and chocolate. I’m planning an intimate party for 200 during WI Sheep & Wool Festival this year, so maybe I can test some recipes on you. If that sounds good, comment away!

Back to the knitting. The brioche scarf got totally frogged and converted to a tube scarf so I can have something for my hands to do when my brain is otherwise occupied. So that’s grinding along. In fact, I think that’s how I’m going to use up all my acrylic: cast on for tube scarves on 16-inch circs. Merry Christmas!

I’m a few inches (6!) into the first of the Crystal Palace Panda Cotton socks. The pooling is fabulous, like a fractal swirl around the sock. I think one more inch and it’s time to knit me a heel flap. And now that the Yarn Harlot herself has annotated Page 144 of Knitting Rules for me, I’ll never forget how to slip those stitches again. (Hint: the needles are tip to tip.) But before I get to that point, I’m going to take someone’s advice and cast on for the second sock and work it up to the heel flap, too. Then I get to do two heel flaps in a row, squee! (That may also mean I have to buy another set of size 2 dpn’s, oh darn.)

I did one repeat on the IHS-with-cursed-yarn and set it aside again. Just not in the mood, I guess. There are still at least three skeins to be wound up, so it’s miles to go before I sleep, it’s for me, there’s no deadline, yadda yadda yadda.

The Packer Hat was mailed out, and I never heard from the guy again. I don’t know if he even received it. I think I’ll just assume he’s on vacation in Door County or something. Hey Brian, give me a shout out when you get back.

I haven’t been brave enough to pick up the Tyrone sweater yet — what is my problem? But in other Backyardigans news, my BY blog Backyardiknits just got a comment from a Spanish language Backyardigans fan blog. I just finished adding them to the blogroll over there. See how trusting I am that my connection will be stable long enough to do such things?

OK, I’m not brave enough to try to add a picture. I’m sure there’s something I want to say that I don’t want to lose in the inevitable failure to connect.

Top Chef related: I totally called out Nikki on this one, though I would have been thrilled to see Dale go home after this episode. Whenever someone’s this poisonous and they get the feedback and they get to go on to the next round, it certainly doesn’t discourage them or their tactics. And bravo Stephanie! And Richard for giving Stephanie his prize sight unseen. She deserved it.

What else is going on? Mr. Chocolatesheep has a state of the art iMac in the other room so he can make other magazines at home in his spare time, when he isn’t at work making magazines. It is freaking awesome. It is so freaking awesome I knew he wouldn’t mind if I snuck away and did a blog post. Mind? I don’t think he noticed.

Next thing to cast on? Maybe that can be what I judge comments on. What should be next on my needles. Socks for myself? My Dale sweater I actually bought the pattern and the yarn for? A knitted thing for my Birthday Buddy Swap on Ravelry? Or a mitered square for a Doctor Who afghan?

I’ll be in touch with you, number 1000.